The contributions of thomas mun and john lockes international trade theories to modern global econom

Xenophon 's Oeconomicus written c. Until the 18th—19th century Industrial Revolution in the West, economics was not a separate discipline but part of philosophy. Plato and Aristotle[ edit ] Plato and his pupil Aristotle had had an enduring effect on Western philosophy.

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Ancient Athens was a slave-based society, but also one developing an embryonic model of democracy. Plato was the first to advocate the Credit Theory of Moneythat money originated as a unit of account for debt. Plato's student Aristotle 's Politics ca. In particular for economists, Plato had drawn a blueprint of society on the basis of common ownership of resources. Aristotle viewed this model as an oligarchical anathema.

Mercantilist and Realist Perspectives on the Global Political Economy

And further, there is the greatest pleasure in doing a kindness or service to friends or guests or companions, which can only be rendered when a man has private property.

These advantages are lost by excessive unification of the state. For him there is a certain "art of acquisition" or "wealth-getting", but because it is the same many people are obsessed with its accumulation, and "wealth-getting" for one's household is "necessary and honorable", while exchange on the retail trade for simple accumulation is "justly censured, for it is dishonorable".

Thomas Aquinas 1225—1274 was an Italian theologian and writer on economic issues. He taught in both Cologne and Paris, and was part of a group of Catholic scholars known as the Schoolmenwho moved their enquiries beyond theology to philosophical and scientific debates.

Mercantilism

In the treatise Summa Theologica Aquinas dealt with the concept of a just pricewhich he considered necessary for the reproduction of the social order. Bearing many similarities with the modern concept of long run equilibrium a just price was supposed to be one just sufficient to cover the costs of productionincluding the maintenance of a worker and his family.

He argued it was immoral for sellers to raise their prices simply because buyers were in pressing need for a product.

Aquinas discusses a number of topics in the format of questions and replies, substantial tracts dealing with Aristotle's theory. Questions 77 and 78 concern economic issues, mainly relate to what a just price is, and to the fairness of a seller dispensing faulty goods.

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Aquinas argued against any form of cheating and recommended compensation always be paid in lieu of good service. Whilst human laws might not impose sanctions for unfair dealing, divine law did, in his opinion. In his work Sententiae 1295he thought it possible to be more precise than Aquinas in calculating a just price, emphasizing the costs of labor and expenses, although he recognized that the latter might be inflated by exaggeration because buyer and seller usually have different ideas of what a just price comprises.

If people did not benefit from a transaction, in Scotus' view, they would not trade. Scotus defended merchants as performing a necessary and useful social role, transporting goods and making them available to the public.

Later neoclassical economists were also more comfortable with nationalist views than is commonly thought Nakano 2007.

Both also stress the conditioning effects of the distribution of power in defining national economic interests.

The gap in power between the hegemon and other states will be great enough for other governments to also prefer openness.

Mercantilists believed that the creation of a favorable balance of trade would increase state power. Clearly, the times call for a deeper understanding of what realists and mercantilists actually say about the global political economy.

Spengler 's 1964 work "Economic Thought of Islam: Now there is a second candidate, Arab Muslim scholar Ibn Khaldun 1332—1406 of Tunisia, although how the Muslim world fell behind the West, or what influence Khaldun had in the West is unclear. Businesses owned by responsible and organized merchants shall eventually surpass those owned by wealthy rulers.